This study sought to analyze and evaluate the accessibility, availability and quality of online information regarding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and hearing loss. The most common search engine keyword terms a caregiver may enter when conducting a web search was determined using a keyword search tool. The top websites linked…

Online discussion forums have become popular in recent times. They provide a platform for people from different parts of the world sharing a common interest to come together and topics of mutual interest and seek solutions to their problems. There are hundreds of thousands of internet forums containing tens of millions of discussion threads and…

Google Scholar is a free service that provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly works and to connect patrons with the resources libraries provide. The researchers in this study analyzed Google Scholar usage data from 2006 for three library tools at San Francisco State University: SFX link resolver, Web Access Management proxy server,…

The ubiquity and familiarity of the world wide web means that students regularly turn to it as a source of information. In doing so, they "are said to rely heavily on simple search engines, such as Google to find what they want." Researchers have also investigated how students use search engines, concluding that "the young web users tended to…

What do Google Maps and a library's Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) have in common? Google Maps provides users with all the information they need for a trip in one place; users can get directions and find out what attractions, hotels, and restaurants are close by. Librarians must find the ultimate OPAC that will provide, in one place, all the…

This study reports the usage of three commercial Internet search engines in information seeking among trainee teachers at a teacher training institute in Malaysia. It attempts to investigate the information seeking behavior of the trainees via three Internet search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) as gateways to information for research in academic…

Information searching skills have become increasingly important for prospective teachers with the exponential growth of learning materials on the web. This study is an attempt to understand the experiences of prospective teachers with search engines through metaphoric images and to further investigate whether their experiences are related to the…

As individuals become more and more comfortable mediating all kinds of situations online and through various technologies, their virtual selves increasingly overlap their "real" lives. Posting a "happy birthday!" message on Facebook is as automatic as dropping a card in the mail. E-mailing relevant links to co-workers happens as naturally as…

Tables are ubiquitous with a history that pre-dates that of sentential text. Authors often report a summary of their most important findings using tabular structure in documents. For example, scientists widely use tables to present the latest experimental results or statistical data in a condensed fashion. Along with the explosive development of…

This research examines socio-economic status (SES) differences in parents' Web use, skills, and satisfaction. A total of 120 parents were interviewed about their use of the Web to find child and family information, and they provided feedback as they searched for information online. Findings indicate that the higher the SES level (a) the greater…

The increased popularity of Google search engine in the daily routine in one's workplace and in the academic information seeking process is undeniable. "Googling" challenges the traditional skills of librarians as information providers and the role of library and information service provision in the digital era. This paper reports on the…

Library patrons familiar with Web searching conventions often find library searching to be less familiar and even intimidating. This article describes and evaluates a series of usability research studies employing two different and popular methodologies: user-centered redesign and usability testing. Card sorting and affinity mapping were used to…

In this article, the author explains how librarians can ensure that their Web site visitors find the information they need. The pros and cons of four options used to help people find information on a Web site are explored. These options are: (1) redesigning the site; (2) creating drop-down, second-level menus for second-level pages; (3) adding a…

The purpose of this study was to explore and investigate the ways faculty at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign use Networked Information Sources and Services to support their research task. Library and Information Sciences faculty at the University of Illinois were chosen as…

This study reports on exploratory research that investigated biology teachers' perceptions of their online information seeking practices and how these practices influenced their instructional planning activities. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results of an online survey and ten in-depth interviews measuring use of specific online…